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MR. BENTON'S LETTER 



MAJ. GEN. DAVIS, OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI, 

DECLINING 

THE NOMINATION OF THE CONVENTION OF THAT STATE; 

DEFENDING 

THE NOMINATION OF MR. VAN BUREN FOR THE TRESIDENCY; 



Recommending Harmony, Concert and Union, to the Democratic 
Party of the United States. 



Washutoton City, January 1st, 1835. 
Dkak Sir, — We have learned that you have declined permitting- your name to be used, 
IS a candidate for the Vice Presidency of the United State?, and that you have addressed a 
letter to that effect, some time since, to the Committee of th'i State Convention of Mississpipi, 
by whom you were nominate, d for that high ofRc:;. It will be a considerable time befo;e your 
ietermi nation, communicited through that channel, can be known to the People of the United 
States; we tlierePore request the favor of a copy of your letter, if you retained one, for pub- 
lication at thii place, in order that your friends elsewhere, as well »s in Mississippi, may have 
\n early opportunity of turnings their attention to some other suitable person. 
Yours, with great respect, 

BOBT. T. LY1 LE, (of Ohio,) 
HBN'RV HUBB\UU, (of Nt-w Hampshire,) 
RATLIFF BOON, (of Indiana,) 
H. A. MUHLENBERG, (of Penns)Ivama.) 
Honorable Twos. H. Bsntost. 



Washington^ City, January 2.1, 1835. 

Gkntlemes, — I hei'ewith send you a copy of my letter, declining the nom nation of the 

Mississippi State Convention, for the ^'ice Presidency of the V. States.Fairness towards my poli- 

ical friends in every part of the Union, required me to let them know at once what my deter- 

nination was;andthis''I have done in many private letters, and in all the conversations which 

have held on the subject. 'I'he nomination in Mississippi was the first one which came from 

I State Convention, and therefore the first one which seemed to me to justify a public letter, 
md to present the question in such a form as would save me irom the ridicule of declining what 
\o Sta'e had offered. The letter to Mississippi was intended for publication, to save my 
riends any farther trouble on my account. It was expected to reach, in its circuit, my friends 

II every quarter; and as you suggest that it must be a considerable time before it could 
eturn from tlie State of Mississippi through the newspapers, and that in the me ml ime, my 
riends elsewhere, m'ght wish earlier information, that they might turn their attention to some 
ther pei'son, I cheerfully comply with your request, and furnish the copy for publication here. 

Yours, respectfully, 

THOMAS H, BENTON. 
4e9sr3. R, T. Lytle, H Hub baud, 
R. Boon, and H. A. Mchlkmberc. •^Cfis^^— - 



^^-— Oq 5^ 



MR. BENTON'S LETTER 



Washington City, Dec. 16th, 1834. 

Dear Sir: Your kind letter of the 8th ultimo has been duly received, and 
I take great pleasure in returning you my thanks for the friendship you have 
shewn me, and which I shall be happy to acknowledge by acts, rather than words, 
whenever an opportunity shall occur. 

The recommendation for the Vice Presidency of the United States, which the 
Democratic Convention of your State has done me the honor to make, is, in the 
highest degree, flattering and honorable to me, and commands the expression of 
my deepest gratitude; but, justice to myself, and to our political friends, requires 
me to say at once, and with the candor, and decision, which rejects all disguise, 
and palters [with no retraction, that I cannot consent to go upon the list of can- 
didates for the eminent oflice for which I have been proposed. 

I consider the ensuing election for President, and Vice President, as one 
among the most important that ever took place in our country; ranking with that 
of 1800, when the democratic principle iirst triumphed in the person of Mr. 
Jefferson, and with the two elections of 1828, and 1832, when the same principle 
again triumphed in the person of General Jackson; and I should look upon all the 
advantages recovered for the constitution, and the people, in these two last tri- 
umphs, as lost, and gone, unless the democracy of the Union shall again triumph 
in the election of 1836. To succeed in that election, will require the most per- 
fect harmony, and union, among ourselves. To secure this union and harmony, 
we must have as few aspirants for the offices of President, and Vice President, 
as possible; and, to diminish the number of these aspirants, I, for one, shall refuse 
to go upon the list: and will remain in the ranks of tlie voters, ready to support 
the cause of democracy, by supporting the election of the candidates which shall 
be selected by a General Convention of the democratic party. 

But, while respectfully declining, for myself, the highly honorable and ffatter- 
ing recommendation of your convention, I take a particular pleasure in express- 
ing the gratification which I feel, at seeing ^he nomination which you hiive made 
in favor of Mr. Van Buren. I have known that gentleman long, and intimately. 
We entered the Senate of the United States together, thirteen years ago, sat six 
years in seats next to each other, were always personally friendly, generally acted 
together on leading subjects, and always interchanged communications, and re- 
ciprocated confidence; and thus, occupying a position to give me an opportunity 
of becoming thoroughly acquainted whith liis principles, and character, the result 
of the whole has been, that I have long since considered him, and so indicated 
him to my friends, as the most fit, and suitable person to fill the presidental 
chair after the expiration of President Jackson's second term. In political prin- 
ciples he is thoroughly democratic, and comes as near the Jeftersonian standard 
as any statesman now on the stage of public life. In abilities, experience, and 
business habits, he is beyond the reach of cavil, or dispute. Personally he is in- 
attackable; for the whole volume of his private life contains not a single act which 
requires explanation, or defence. In constitutional temperament he is peculiarly 
adapted to the station, and the times; for no human being could be more free from 
every taint of envy, malignity, or revenge; or, could possess, in a more eminent 
degree, that happy conjunction of firmness of purpose, with suavity of manners, 
which contributes so much to the successful administration of public affairs, and 
is so essential, and becoming, in a high public functionary. The State from which 



he comes, and of which, successive elections for two and twenty years prove him 
to be the favorite son, is also to be taken into the account in the list of his recom- 
mendations; that great State which, in the eventful struggle of 1800, turned 
the scales of the presidential election in favor of Mr. Jefferson, — which has sun- 
ported every democratic administration from that day to this; a State which now 
numbers two millions of inhabitants, — gives forty-two votes in the presidential 
election, — and never saw one of her own sons exalted to the presidential office. 

But what has he done? What has Mr. Van Buren done, that he should be 
elected President? This is the inquiry, as flippantly, as ignorantly, put by those 
who would veil, or disparage the merits of this gentleman; when it would be 
much more regular and pertinent to ask, what has such a man as this done, that 
he should not be made President? — But, to answer the intpiiry as put: It might, 
perhaps, be sufficient, so far at least as the comparative merits of competitors are 
concerned, to point to his course in the Senate of the United States during the 
eight years that he sat in that body; and to his conduct since in the high offices 
to which he has been called by his native State, by President Jackson, and by 
the American People. Tliis might be sufficient between Mr. Van Buren and 
others; but it would not be sufficient for himself. Justice to him would require 
the answer to go further back, — to the war of 1812, — when he was a member 
of the New York Senate; when the fate of Mr. Madison's administration, 
and of the Union itself, depended upon the conduct of that great State, — great 
in men and means, — and greater in position, a frontier to New England and to 
Canada, — to British arms and Hartford Convention treason; — and when that 
conduct, to the dismay of every patriot bosom, was seen to hang, for nearly two 
years, in the doubtful scales of suspense. The federalists had the majoiity in 
the House of Representatives; the democracy had the Senate and the Governor; 
and for two successive sessions no measure could be adopted in support of the 
war. Every aid proposed by the Governor and Senate, was rejected by the 
House of Representatives. Every State paper issued by one, was answered by 
the other. Contiimal disagreements took place; innumerable conferences were 
had; the Hall of the House of Representatives was the scene of contestation; 
and every conference was a public exhibition of parliamentary conflict, — a pub- 
lic trial of intellectual digladiation, — in which each side, represented by com- 
mittees of iis ablest men, and in the presence of both Houses, and of assembled 
multitudes, exerted itself to the utmost to justify itself, and to put the other in the 
wrong, to operate upon public opinion, govern the impending elections, and 
acquire the ascendency in the ensuing legislature. Mr. Van Buren, then a young 
man, had just entered the Senate at the commencement of this extraordinary 
struggle. He entered it, November, 1812; and had just distinguished himself 
in the oppositicm of his county to the renewal of the first national Bank charter, — 
in the support of Vice President Clinton for giving the casting vote- against \\ — 
and in his noble support of Governor Tompkins, for his Roman energy in pro- 
roguing the General Assembly, (April, 1812,) which could not otherwise be 
prevented from receiving, and embodying, the transmigratory soul of that de- 
funct institution, and giving it a new existence, in a new place, under an altered 
name, and modified form. He was politically born out of this conflict, and came 
into the legislature against the Bank, and for the war. He was the man which 
the occasion required; the ready writer, — prompt debater, — ^judicious counsellor; 
courteous in manners, — fii-m in purpose, — inflexible in principles. He contrived 
the measures, — brought forward the bills and reports, — delivered the speeches, — 
and drew the State papers, (especially the powerful address to the republican 
voters of the State,) which, eventually, vanquished the federal party, turned 
the doubtful scales, and gave the elections of April, 1814, to the friends and 
supporters of Madison and the war; an event, the intelligence of which was re- 
ceived at Washington with an exultation only inferior to that with which was 
received the news of the victory of New Orleans. The new Legislature, now 



4 

democratic in both branches, was quickly convened by Governor Tompkins; and 
Mr. Van Buren had the honor to bring forward, and carry through, amidst the ap- 
plauses of patriots, and the denunciation of the anti-war party, the most ener- 
getic war measure ever adopted in our America, — the classification bill, as he 
called it, the cojiscription bill, as they called it. By this bill, the provisions of 
which, by a new and summary process, were so contrived as to act upon proper- 
ty, as well as upon persons, an army of twelve thousand State troops, were im- 
mediately to be raised; to serve for two years, and to be placed at the disposition 
of the General Government. The peace which was signed in the last days of 
December, 1814, rendered this great measure of New York inoperative; but its 
merit was acknowledged by all patriots at the time; the principle of it was adopt- 
ed by Mr. Madison's administration; recommended by the Secretary at War, 
Mr. Monroe, to the Congress of the United States, and found by that body too 
energetic to be passed. To complete his course in support of the war, and to 
crown his meritorious labors to bring it to a happy close, it became Mr. Van Bu- 
ren's fortune to draw up the vote of thanks of the greatest State in the Union, to 
ihe greatest General which the war had produced, — " the thanks of the New Fork 
legislature to Major General Jacksox, his gallant officers and troops, for their 
wonderful, and heroic victory, in defence of the grand emporium of the West.''' 
Such was the appropriate conclusion to iiis patriotic services in support of the 
war: services, to be sure, not rivalling in splendor the heroic achievements of 
victorious arms; but services, nevertheless, both honorable, and meritorious, in 
their place; and without which battles cannot be fought, victories cannot be won, 
nor countries be saved. Martial renown, it is true, he did not acquire, nor at- 
tempt; but the want of that fascination to his name can hardly be objected to him, 
in these days, when the political ascendency of military chieftains is so patheti- 
cally deplored, and when the entire perils of the republic are supposed to be 
compressed into the single danger of a military despotism. 

Such is the answer, in brief, and in part, to the flippant inquiry. What has 
he doner 

The vote in the Senate, for the tariff of 1 828, has sometimes been objected to 
Mr. Van Buren; but witii how much ignorance of the truth, let facts attest. 

He was the first eminent member of Congress, north of the Potomac, to open 
the war, at the right point, upon that tariff of 1828, then undergoing the process 
of incubation through the instrumentality of a Convention to sit at Harrisburg. 
His speech at Albany, in July, 1827, opeidy characterized that measure as a po- 
litical manoeuvre to influence the impending presidential election; and the graphic 
expression, '^ a measure proceeding more from the closet of the politician 
than from, the workshop of the manufacturer," so opportunely and felicitously 
used in that speech, soon became the opinion of the public, and subsequently 
received the impress of verification from the abandonment, and the manner of 
abandoning, of the whole fabric of the high tariff policy. Failing to carry any 
body into the Presidential chair, its doom pronounced by the election of Jackson 
and Van Buren,'- it was abandoned, as it had been created, upon a political cal- 
culation; and expired under ?ifiat emanating, not from the tvorkshop of the man- 
ufacturer, but l^i-om the closet of the politician. — True, that Mr. Van Buren 
voted for the tariff of 1828, notwithstanding his speech of 1827; but, equally 
true, that he voted under instructions from his State Legislature, and in obedi- 
ence to the great democratic principle {demos, the people, kraleo, to govern) which 
has always formed a distinguishing feature, and a dividing land-mark, between 
the two great political parties which, under whatsoever name, have always exist- 
ed, and still exist, in our country. — Sitting in the chair next to him at the time of 
that vote, voting as he did, and upon the same principle; interchanging opinions 
without reserve, or disguise, it comes within the perception of my own senses to 



*Over the high tariff' champions, Clay and Sergeant. 



know, that he felt great repugnance to the provisions of that tariff act of '28, and 
voted for it, as I did, in obedience to a principle which we both hold sacred. 

No public man, since the days of Mr. Jefferson, has been pursued with more 
bitterness than Mr. Van Buren; none, not excepting Mr. Jefferson himself, has 
ever had to withstand the combined assaults 'ot so many, and such formidable 
powers. His prominent position, in relation to the next Presidency, has drawn 
upon him the general attack of other candidates, — themselves as well as their 
friends; for, in diese days, (how different from former times!) candidates for the 
Presidency are seen to take the field for themselves, — banging away at their com- 
petitors, — sounding the notes of their own applause, — and dealing in the tricks, 
and cant, of veteran cross-road, or alehouse, electioneerers. His old opposi- 
tion, and early declaration (1826) against the Bank of the United States, has 
brought upon him the pervading vengeance of that powerful institution; and sub- 
jected him to the vicarious vituperation of subaltern assailants, inflamed with a 
wrath, not their own, in whatsoever spot that terrific institution maintains a 
branch, or a press, retains an adherent, or holds a debtor. (It was under the 
stimulus, and predictions of the Bank press, that Mr. Van Buren was rejected 
by the Senate in 1832.) Yet in all this combination of powers against him, and 
in all these unrelenting attacks, there is no specification of misconduct. All is 
vague, general, indefinite, mysterious. Mr. Crawford, the most open, direct, 
and palpable of public men, was run down upon the empty cry of ''giant at 
intriguer^ ii second edition of that cry, now stereotyped for harder use, is ex- 
pected to perform the same service upon Mr. Van Buren; while tlie ongmators 
and repeaters of the cry, in both instances, have found it equally impossible to 
specify a case of intrigue in the life of one, or the other, of these gentlemen. 

Safety fund banks, is another of those cries raised against him; as if there was 
any thing in the system of those banks to make the banking system worse; or, as 
if the money, and politics of these safety fund banks, were at the service ot Mr. 
Van Buren. On the contrary, it is not even pretended by his enemies that he 
owns a single dollar of stock in any one of these banks! and I have been fre- 
quently informed, from sources entitled to my confidence, that he does not own a 
dollar of interest in any bank in the world] that he has wholly abstained from 
becoming the owner of any bank stock, or taking an interest in any company, 
incorporated by the Legislature, since he first became a member of that body, 
above two-and-twenty years ago. And as for the politics of the safety tund 
banks, it has been recently, and authentically ^hown that a vast majority of them 
are un;:ler the control of his most determined and active political opponents- 

No public man has been more opposed to the extension of the banking system 
than Mr. Van Buren. The journals of the New York Legislature show that the 
many years during which he was a prominent member of that body, he exerted 
himself in a continued and zealous opposition to the increase of banks; and, upon 
h,is elevation to the Chief Magistracy of the State, finding the system of banks so 
incorporatet! with the business and interests of the People, as to render its 
abolishment impossible, he turned his attention to its improvement, and to the 
establishment of such guards against fraudulent, or even unfortunate bankruptcy, 
as would, under all circumstances, protect the holders of notes against loss. The 
safety fund system was the result of views of this kind; and if its complete suc- 
cess hitherto (for no bank has failed under it,) and the continued support and con- 
fidence of the representatives of two millions of people, are not sufficient to attest 
its efficacy, there is one consideration at least, which should operate so far in its 
favor as to save it from the sneers of those who cannot tell what the safety fund 
system is; and that is, the perfect ease and composure with which the whole of 
these banks rode out the storm of Senatorial and United States Bank assault, 
panic, and pressure, upon them last winter! This consideration should save Mr. 
Van Buren from the censure of some people, if it cannot attract their applause. 
^ For the rest, he is a real hard money man; opposed to the paper system — in favor 
of a national currency of gold — in favor of an adequate silver currency for com- 



mon use — against the small note currency — and in favor of confining bank notes 
to their appropriate sphere and original function, that of large notes for large 
transactions, and mercantile operations. 

Non-committal, is another of the flippant phrases, got by rote, and parroted 
against Mr. Van Buren. He never commits himself, say these veracious observ- 
ers! he never shows his hand, till he sees which way the game is going! Is this 
true? Is there any foundation for it? On the contrary, is it not contradicted by 
public and notorious facts? by the uniform tenor of his entire public life for near 
a quarter of a century? To repeat nothing of what has been said ot his opposi- 
tion to the first Bank of the United States, his support of Vice President Clin- 
ton for giving the casting vote against the recharter of that institution, his sup- 
port of Governor Tompkins, in the extraordinary measure of proroguing the New 
York Legislature, to prevent the metempsychosis of the Bank, and its revivifi- 
cation, in the City of New York; to repeat nothing of all this, and of his 
undaunted and brilliant support of the war, from its beginning to its end, I shall 
refer only to what has happened in my own time, and under my own eyes. His 
firm, and devoted, support of Mr. Crawford, in the contest of 1824, when that 
eminent citizen, prostrate with disease, and inhumanly assailed, seemed to be 
doomed to inevitable defeat; was that non-connnittal? His early espousal of Gen- 
eral Jackson's cause, after the election in the House of Representatives, in Feb- 
ruary, 1825, and his steadfast opposition to Mr. Adams's administration; was that 
non-committal? His prominent stand against the Panama Mission, when that 
mission was believed to be irresistibly popular, and was pressed upon the Senate 
to crush the opposition members; was that also a wily piece of non-committal 
policy? His declaration against the Bank of the United States in the year 1826; 
was that the conduct of a man waiting to see the issue before he could take his 
side? The removal of the deposites,and the panic scene of last winter, in which 
so many gave way, and so many others folded their arms until the struggle was 
over, while Mr. Van Buren, both by his own conduct, and that of his friends, 
gave an undaunted support to that masterly stroke of the President; is this also 
to be called a non-committal line of conduct, and the evidence of a temper that 
sees the issue before it decides? The fact is, this ridiculous and nonsensical 
charge, is so unfounded and absurd, so easily refuted, and not only refuted, but 
turned to the honor and advantage of Mr. Van Buren, that his friends might have 
ran the risk of being suspected of having invented it themselves, and put it into 
circulation, just to give some others of his friends a brilliant opportunity of embla - 
zoning his merits! were it not that the blind enmity of his competitors has put 
the accusation upon record, and enabled his friends to exculpate themselves, and 
to prove home the original charge against his undisputed opponents. 

For one thing Mr. Van Buren has reason to be thankiul to his enemies; it is, 
for having began the war upon him so soon! There is time enough yet for truth 
and justice to do their office, and to dispel every cloud of prejudice which the 
jealousy of rivals, the vengeance of the Bank, and the ignorance of dupes, has 
hung over his name. 

Union, harmony, self-denial, concession, — every thing for the cause, nothing 
for men, — should be the watchword, and motto of the democratic party. 

Disconnected from the election, — a voter, and not a candidate, — having no 
object in view but to preserve the union of the democratic party, and to prevent 
the administration of the public affairs from relapsing into hands that would undo 
every thing; hands that would destroy every limit to the constitution, by latitudi- 
nous constructions, — which would replunge the country into debt, and taxes, 
by the reckless, wilful, systematic, ungovernable, headlong, stubborn, support 
of every wasteful and extravagant expenditure, — that would re-deliver the coun- 
try into the hands of an institution which has proved the scourge of the people — 
and which would instantly revive the dominion of paper money, by arresting 
the progress of the gold and silver currency: having no object in view but to pre- 
vent these calamities, 1 may be permitted to say a word, without incurring the 



imputation of speaking from interested motives, on the vital point of union in the 
democratic party. 

The obligation upon good men to unite, when bad men combine, is as clear 
in pLilitics as it is in morals. Fidelity to this obligation nas, heretofore, saved 
the republic, and was never more indispensable to its safety than at the present 
moment. The ettbrts made under the elder Adams, above thirty years ago, to 
subvert the principles of our Government, produced a union of the productive, 
and burthen-bearing classes, in every quarter of the republic. Planters, farmers, 
laborers, mechanics, (with a slight infusion Irom the commercial and professional 
interests,) whether on this side or that of the Potomac, whether East or West 
of the Alleghany mountains, stood together upon the principle of common right, 
and the sense of common danger, and eifected that first great union of the demo- 
cratic party which achieved the civil revolution of 1800, arrested the downward 
course of the Government, and turned back the national administration to its re- 
publican principles, and economical habits. 

The sagacious mind of Mr. JeiFerson well discerned, in the homogeneous ele- 
ments of which this united party was composed, the appropriate materials for a 
republican Government; and to the permanent conjunction of these elements, he 
constantly looked for the only insurmountable barrier to the approaches of oli- 
garchy and aristocracy. Actuated by a zeal which has never been excelled, for 
the success and perpetuity of the Democratic cause, he labored assiduously in his 
high office, and subsequent retirement, in his conversations, and letters, to cement, 
sustain, and perpetuate a party, on the union and indivisibility of which he sole- 
ly relied for the preservation of our republic. It was the political power, result- 
ing from this auspicious union, (to say nothing of several other occasions,) which 
carried us safely and triumphantly through the late war; enabling the Govern- 
ment to withstand, on one hand, the paralyzing machinations of a disaflfected 
aristocracy, and to repel on the other, the hostile attacks of a great nation. 

The first relaxation of the ties which bound together the Democracy of the 
North and South, East and West, was followed by the restoration to power of 
federal men, and the re-appearance in the administration of federal doctrines, 
and federal measures. The younger Mr. Adams crept into power through the 
first breach that was made in the Democratic ranks; and immediately proclaimed 
the fundamental principles which lie at the bottom of ancient federalism, and 
modern whiggism, — " the representative not to be palsied by the will of his con- 
stituents;^^ — " constitutional scruples to be solved in practical blessings;^^ — two 
doctrines, one of v/hich would leave the people without representatives, and the 
other would leave the Government without a constitution. The ultra federalism 
of this gentleman's administration, fortunately for the country, led to the re-union 
of those homogeneous elements, by the first union of which the elder Mr. Adams 
had been ejected from power; and this re-union immediately produced a second 
civil revolution not less vital to the republic than the first one, of 1800: a revo- 
lution to which we are indebted for the election of a President who has turned 
back the Government, so far as in his power lies, to the principles of the consti- 
tution, and to the practice of economy, — wiio has directed the action of the Go- 
vernment to patriotic objects, — saved the people from the cruel dominion of a 
heartless moneyed power; — withstood the combined assaults of the Bank, and its 
allied Statesmen, — and frustrated a conspiracy against the liberty, and the pro- 
perty, of the people, but little less atrocious in its design, and little less disastrous 
in its intended effects, than that conspiracy from which Cicero delivered the Roman 
people, and for the frustration of which he was hailed by Cato, in the assembled 
presence of all Rome, with the glorious appellation of Pater Patrise — Father of 
his Country. 

The democracy of the four quarters of the Union, now united, victorious, hap- 
py, and secure, under the administration of President Jackson; shall it disband, 
and fall to pieces the instant that great man retires? This is what federalism 
hopes, foretels, promotes, intrigues, prays, and pants for. Shall this be — and 



tl^ough whose fault? Shall sectional prejudices, lust of power, contention for 
office, (that bane of freedom;) shall personal preferences, so amiable in private 
life, iio weak in politics; shall these small causes — these Lilliputian tactics — 
be suffered to work the disruption of the democratic union? to separate the repub- 
lican of the South and West, from his brother of the North and East? and, in that 
separation, to make a new opening for the second restoration of federalism (under 
its alius dicivs of whiggism,) and the permanent enslavement of the producing, 
and burthen-bearing classes of the community? 

Bear with me if I speak without disguise, and say, if these things happen, it 
must be through the fault of the South and West. ^ 

Here are the facts : 

It has so happened that, although every Southern President (four in number) 
and the only Western one (through his two terms) has received the warm sup- 
port of Northern Democracy, yet no Northern President has ever yet received 
the support of the South and W^st. Hitherto this peculiar, and one-sided result, 
has left no sting — created no heartburnings — in the bosom of Northern Demo- 
cracy, because it was the result, not of sectional bigotry, but of facts, and prin- 
ciples. The administrations of the two Northern Presidents were alike offensive 
to republicans of all quarters, and were put down by the joint voices of a united 
Democracy. 

But suppose this state of things now to be changed, and a Democratic candidate 
to be presented from the North; ought that candidate to be opposed by the Demo- 
cracy oi the South and West? Suppose that candidate to be one coining as near 
to the Jeifersonian standard (to say more might seem invidious; to say that much 
IS enough tor the argument,) suppose such a candidate to be presented; ought the 
Democracy of the South and West, to reject him? Could they do it, without 
showing a disposition to monopolize the Presidential office? and" to go on for an 
indefinite succession, after having already possessed the office for forty years, 
out of forty-eight? What would be the effect of such a stand, taken by the South 
and West, on the harmony of the Democratic party ? Certainly to destroy it! 
What would be its effect" on the harmonv of the States? Certainly to array 
them against each other! What would be 'its effect on the formation of parties? 
Certainly to change it from the ground of principle, to the ground of territo»-y! 
to substitute a geographical basis, for the political basis, on which parties now 
rest. Could these things be desirable to any friend of popular government: t'\ 
any considerate, and reflecting man in the South, or West? On the contrary, 
should not the Democracy of the South and West, rejoice at an opportunity to 
show themselves superior to sectional bigotry, devoted to principle, intent upon 
the general harmony, inaccessible to intrigue, or to weakness; and ready to sup- 
port the cause of democracy, whether the representative of the cause comes from 
this, or that side, of a river, or a mountain.^ — A Southern and a Western man my- 
self, this is the state of my own feelings, and I rejoice to see that yimr conven- 
tion has acted upon them. And if, what I have here written (and which I could 
not have written if I had accepted the most honorable and gratifying Nomination 
of your convention) if this letter, too long for the occasion, but too short for my 
feelings! if it shall contribute to prevent the disruption of the republican party, 
and the consequent loss of all the advantages recovered for the constitution and 
the People, under the administration of President Jackson, then shall I feel the 
consolation of having done a better service to the Republic by refusing to take, 
than I can ever do, by taking, office. 

Hoping then, my dear sir, that the nomination of your Convention may have 
its full effect in favor of Mr. Van Buren, and that it may be entirely forgotten, 
so far as it regards myself, except in the grateful recollections of my own bosom, 
I remain, f^ost truly and sincerely vours, 

THOMAS H. BENTON. 

Major General Davis, 

Manchester, Mississippi. S Q lir 




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